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Sunday, 16 March 2014

Sleeping beauty's castle and amazing gardens

After a very busy day previously we decided to only do two castles today and spend a bit more time at each. First off was the chateau Usse which was used as the inspiration for the fairytale Sleeping Beauty.

Walking up to the chateau.

The dining room set up ready for visitors.

Penelope with her ladies in waiting.

Gorgeous staircases.

View from the window.

Aurora about to prick her finger on the spinning wheel.

Prince Charming about to kiss Aurora and remove the spell.

The loft of the castle which was fill of interesting old, dusty bits and pieces.

We had great fun running up and down the towers and loosing each other and exploring all the different rooms.

The chapel.

Exploring the outside of the castle.

We had been a bit more organised today and had popped into the supermarket before we went to the chateau and had got some yummy food for a picnic lunch. We found a picnic table just down from the chateau and had a lovely lunch of salad and hot sausages.

Next chateau was Villandry which is famous for its magnificent gardens. As it is still only March the flowers weren't out yet but we could appreciate how beautiful it would look in summer.

The moat around the castle.

Running off to explore the gardens and to find the maze.

Looking down onto the gardens back to the chateau.

We can just imagine how amazing these gardens would be in summer.

We decided to go for a walk in the forest at the back of the chateau.

Spring flowers!

The labyrinth.

It had come out quite warm so we decided to get an icecream and a coffee at the cafe outside the chateau and relax in the sunshine.

We stopped at Chateau Azay-le-Rideau but decided to just look at it from the outside.

It was only 3.30 so we decided to head to Chinon to have a look around the town and look at one last chateau. On the way we saw a vineyard and decided to pull n for a bit of wine tasting. The kids happily stayed in the car - yah for car DVD players and portable technology! The wine tasting was great fun and we even ended up buying a couple of bottles to add to our stash to take back to NZ.

We drove into the village of Chinon although Jasper was not happy at having to get out of the car and go to yet another chateau. We walked up the hill to the castle and to Jasper's delight the castle was closing so no entry for us.

Climbing the wall by Chinon Castle.

The boys walked back down the hill and the girls and I took the lift (yes that's right!!)